The British Business Bank, the UK’s national economic development bank, has published its 2020 Annual Report and Accounts for this, its sixth year of operation.

Mercuryo.io - a fast-growing Estonian startup that bills itself as a European leader in cryptocurrency payment processing solutions closed a €2.5m seed funding led by Target Global, a major international VC fund with €800m+ under management. Mercuryo.io is a cross-border payments network that enables businesses across the world to send and receive payments for goods and services using cryptocurrencies. Its infrastructure provides solutions for virtual accounts, business payments, remittance processing, and mass payouts regardless of local payment methods and currencies. 

AIPUT (Aberdeen Standard Investments’ Airport Industrial Property Unit Trust) 

Humatica, the leading private equity specialist advisor for portfolio organisational effectiveness, 

Intertrust, a global leader in providing tech-enabled fund and corporate solutions, 

Humatica, the leading private equity specialist advisor for portfolio organisational effectiveness, has advised private equity firm Baird Capital on its acquisition of a majority interest in eCube Solutions Limited, a leading aircraft disassembly and end of life services provider based in St. Athan, Wales and Castellón, Spain.

Innova Capital, a leading private equity fund in C&EE, has signed a definitive agreement with Kingspan Group to sell 100% stake in Trimo, a leading European producer of high-quality façade and building envelope solutions.

Final figures have been published by the Development Bank of Wales today for the £100m Covid-19 Wales Business Loan Scheme (CWBLS). The fund formed part of the wider £500m Welsh Government Economic Resilience Fund and provided working capital to businesses experiencing cash flow difficulties as a result of the pandemic.

Quotevine, the forward-thinking solutions platform for the auto, asset and consumer finance industries, has announced its four-year renewal with the independent provider of finance facilities to the SME sector, 1pm plc.

Research has shown that UK 1 small and medium businesses are owed as much as £50bn in late payments at any one time, with the situation only likely to get worse in the current climate. In response to this epidemic, itsettled, an automated, proven and legally compliant process for SME’s to chase their outstanding invoices has been launched.

TaxScouts, the company making tax preparation effortless for the UK market, has announced a Series A investment round of £5M to further its mission to build a Pan-European Tax Service. The company is expanding into its first market outside the UK and is establishing a team in Spain, following the appointment of a Country Manager. 

Mergermarket, the leading provider of M&A data and intelligence, has released its 1H20 report with league tables. According to the new research, the initial effects of COVID-19 were only beginning to be felt across the global economy at the end of 1Q20. However, its full impact manifested in the second quarter, where deal volume nearly halved from 4,308 deals in 1Q20 to 2,630 in 2Q20 and deal values plummeted from USD 592.6bn in 1Q20 to USD 308.9bn in 2Q20.